Gabby Petito and White Privilege

Ana the Ist

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Joy Reid dismisses interest in Gabby Petito as ‘missing white woman syndrome’

I've long called discussions about white privilege to be thinly veiled racism against whites. In it's most academic arguments, it's a poorly evidenced and basically immeasurable/undetectable accusation of unconscious racism that favors whites over everyone else. In that form, it's an interesting bit of speculation that doesn't really explain anything. After all, there's no way to detect "white privilege" and certainly no way to measure its effects.

That should have been the beginning and end of the term...but instead, it's been picked up and used as an explanation for anything by people who are racist against whites. Does a white person have a better job than you? White privilege. Does your child's school teach them about European history? White privilege. Even if you aren't white and you have achieved the same thing as a white person....be it a degree or level success at a career....you can still claim that you worked harder, or the white person didn't have to overcome as many obstacles, because of white privilege.

Here now, we have a black woman on tv lamenting that a dead white girl has benefitted from her white privilege even as a corpse. These racists think there's never a bad time to draw attention to some imaginary racial victimhood....even if that time is during a tragedy where a family has found their dead daughter.

"Well, the answer actually has a name: Missing White Woman Syndrome - the term coined by the late and great Gwen Ifill to describe the media and public fascination with missing White women like Laci Peterson or Natalee Holloway, while ignoring cases involving people of colour,” the host of ReidOut on MSNBC said."

Remarkable. It's as if these racists were in a coma during all of 2020 when millions protested daily over crimes committed against black people. I suppose they imagine that no white people were wrongly shot by police during that whole time. They don't see this horrible tragedy unfold and think "what an awful thing for this girl's family to go through"....

They think "how can I make this story about black people and how they are the real victims"?

It's as if this case doesn't deserve the attention the media has given it...because the victim is white. You would think that since they spend so much time bringing attention to black victimhood, no matter how small or petty, they would appreciate taking a little break from it.

Instead, it appears they resent it. It's as if the constant stream of racism towards whites, and the devaluation of our struggles and achievements (through the accusation of white privilege) has left these racists at a point where they become angry that the media would dare give attention to the horrible tragedy and struggle this white family is going through.

It's disgusting that these racists and their racist beliefs have become so mainstream on the left that discussions like this are taken seriously...instead of dismissed as the racist garbage they are.

Thoughts?
 

Abaxvahl

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Thoughts?

I personally don't think it's racism towards white folks when people call these things "Missing White Woman Syndrome," for it is interesting in itself why so many cases like this dominate our news when minorities go missing all the time (even my state has such a case right now). Whatever happened to her was bad but it doesn't make this point false.
 
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Ana the Ist

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What is it about this case that captures so much front page news? Especially Fox News.

I would think the specifics of it in general...

The couple were YouTubers and had some presence in the public eye to start with.

There's footage of them being stopped by police on the side of the road where they seem to have been arguing recently.

There's random footage of a passerby who might have passed their van near the forest while driving.

Then there's the return of the boyfriend, alone, his refusal to help investigators and subsequent disappearance.

These elements add up to a little bit more intrigue than the typical missing person case. Of course, the media has one unflappable rule when it comes to media coverage....whatever gets an audience gets coverage.

That doesn't seem to matter to these racists who, like most people who trot out white privilege as an explanation, think it's all because she's white and our nation is racist.
 
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spiritfilledjm

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A woman was missing and likely murdered...that is all need to be said. The circumstances behind it and drama are what make it national news. I do understand her viewpoints though. Here in Indiana a few years ago there was an absolutely terrible thing that happened where two young girls were raped and murdered at a park in Logansport. There was video and audio of the killer following them and kidnapping them that they somehow uploaded to snapchat. Due to this evidence it got a lot of coverage. That same weekend (if I remember correctly) there was a fire that has been ruled as arson that took the lives of 4 young black children. These events took place maybe 20 miles from one another. They were in the same county or adjacent counties. The Logansport murder got a ton of coverage, of course ultimately because of the unique evidence there was and the fact that the killer has still not been found, but the other one, which remains unsolved got virtually no coverage and the killer also has not been found.

It is odd that it is white vs. black and sad that the media continues to spin a racist narrative in an attempt to bring about a race war but still. What's more sad is that 6 young children were murdered in one weekend and their killers still remain at large.
 
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Ana the Ist

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I personally don't think it's racism towards white folks when people call these things "Missing White Woman Syndrome," for it is interesting in itself why so many cases like this dominate our news

From the article...

According to a report by National Crime Centre data, nearly 90,000 active missing person cases were recorded in the US by the end of 2020.

90k missing person cases. The media can't possibly cover them all equally.

when minorities go missing all the time (even my state has such a case right now). Whatever happened to her was bad but it doesn't make this point false.

No...the point is false because it's blatantly racist. The media focuses on black crime victims all the time. I saw articles about a black guy who had the police called on him wrongfully, by a white woman, for weeks. It was a rather astounding amount of coverage for such a small crime.

Yet despite this disproportionate coverage....I don't recall any major media figures claiming that the coverage was the result of some widespread privilege that black people have. That the whole reason we don't spend the same amount of time on, for example, an asian victim of a hate crime is because black people are just walking around with a tremendous privilege that comes from a society that cares more about their problems than everyone else's.
 
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Abaxvahl

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I don't recall any major media figures claiming that the coverage was the result of some widespread privilege that black people have.

One of the main points being that they do not have as much in general and are lower in the "hierarchy" than most if not all in our particular society. So it would not make much sense to claim that in most cases.
 
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I frankly still don't understand why her disappearance was *national* news with major coverage. Local news where it happened, where she lives, sure I get that. But, national news?

Unfortunately people disappear, some under suspicious circumstances, and some turn up dead. Each of those is local news, but it isn't national news.

"Senate aid goes missing"
"Governor's daughter missing"
"AG kills man in hit and run, claims hit deer"
"Congressman's girlfriend missing"

Those sound like bigger news, with some national interest, but nothing about *this* case screams national news. At least not more than a short report now that she's dead.
 
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Ana the Ist

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One of the main points being that they do not have as much in general and are lower in the "hierarchy" than most if not all in our particular society. So it would not make much sense to claim that in most cases.

What "hierarchy"?

I don't see anyone as less than or greater than myself because of their race.

I'm sure some people do...but that's not because of a hierarchy, that's because they are racists.
 
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Ana the Ist

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I frankly still don't understand why her disappearance was *national* news with major coverage. Local news where it happened, where she lives, sure I get that. But, national news?

Unfortunately people disappear, some under suspicious circumstances, and some turn up dead. Each of those is local news, but it isn't national news.

"Senate aid goes missing"
"Governor's daughter missing"
"AG kills man in hit and run, claims hit deer"
"Congressman's girlfriend missing"

Those sound like bigger news, with some national interest, but nothing about *this* case screams national news. At least not more than a short report now that she's dead.

I often wonder why some cases get the attention they do. I don't see anything inherently wrong with that, or exploring it honestly. For example...

White Woman Is Fired After Calling Police on Black Man in Central Park (Published 2020)

This case had multiple articles in the NYT and most major media outlets. That link there is an update over a year after the original incident. A woman called the police on a black man, falsely, at a dog park. There's not much to the story.

Imagine though, how messed up it would be, if some white news reporter got on tv and suggested that the whole reason this case got so much media attention....instead of the many other minor hate crimes....is because we live in a racist society that values black victims far more than other races.

Would that come off as a wee bit racist?
 
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Joy Reid dismisses interest in Gabby Petito as ‘missing white woman syndrome’

I've long called discussions about white privilege to be thinly veiled racism against whites. In it's most academic arguments, it's a poorly evidenced and basically immeasurable/undetectable accusation of unconscious racism that favors whites over everyone else. In that form, it's an interesting bit of speculation that doesn't really explain anything. After all, there's no way to detect "white privilege" and certainly no way to measure its effects.

That should have been the beginning and end of the term...but instead, it's been picked up and used as an explanation for anything by people who are racist against whites. Does a white person have a better job than you? White privilege. Does your child's school teach them about European history? White privilege. Even if you aren't white and you have achieved the same thing as a white person....be it a degree or level success at a career....you can still claim that you worked harder, or the white person didn't have to overcome as many obstacles, because of white privilege.

Here now, we have a black woman on tv lamenting that a dead white girl has benefitted from her white privilege even as a corpse. These racists think there's never a bad time to draw attention to some imaginary racial victimhood....even if that time is during a tragedy where a family has found their dead daughter.

"Well, the answer actually has a name: Missing White Woman Syndrome - the term coined by the late and great Gwen Ifill to describe the media and public fascination with missing White women like Laci Peterson or Natalee Holloway, while ignoring cases involving people of colour,” the host of ReidOut on MSNBC said."

Remarkable. It's as if these racists were in a coma during all of 2020 when millions protested daily over crimes committed against black people. I suppose they imagine that no white people were wrongly shot by police during that whole time. They don't see this horrible tragedy unfold and think "what an awful thing for this girl's family to go through"....

They think "how can I make this story about black people and how they are the real victims"?

It's as if this case doesn't deserve the attention the media has given it...because the victim is white. You would think that since they spend so much time bringing attention to black victimhood, no matter how small or petty, they would appreciate taking a little break from it.

Instead, it appears they resent it. It's as if the constant stream of racism towards whites, and the devaluation of our struggles and achievements (through the accusation of white privilege) has left these racists at a point where they become angry that the media would dare give attention to the horrible tragedy and struggle this white family is going through.

It's disgusting that these racists and their racist beliefs have become so mainstream on the left that discussions like this are taken seriously...instead of dismissed as the racist garbage they are.

Thoughts?
What do you expect? Satan is the liar and deceiver. The Church should be the epitomy of love and unity. There should be no "white" and "black" fellowships. Yet there are. If the church can't get it right, how can we expect the world to be right.

Satan is way more intelligent than we are. He knows the principle of divide and rule. He's always promoting difference, trying to foster jealousy, hatred, division and conflict. Since the human heart is so deceitful and deceived, Satan has little trouble stirring up the world over the slightest issue.

Christians should be the example of how to live in harmony in all things - race, gender, age and social status. Paul rebuked the Corinthians for forming cliques. I wonder what he'd have to say about the church today?
 
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It doesn't get national attention without some purposeful sensation.

A usual year for missing persons is over 600,000.

From time to time we sensationalize a missing person, usually an attractive white girl.
 
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CRAZY_CAT_WOMAN

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True, If Gabby wasn't a tiny cute white person. Most people wouldn't care. News media wouldn't talk about it much. She's a money maker. And why shouldn't the media make money from it. I like crime stories . And this one looks like an easy to solve case . I'm more intrigued about the other missing people . That wasn't found in the area she was found.
 
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Ana the Ist

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Christians should be the example of how to live in harmony in all things - race, gender, age and social status. Paul rebuked the Corinthians for forming cliques. I wonder what he'd have to say about the church today?

My guess is he'd convert back to Judaism after learning how many pedophiles the Vatican protected .
 
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Aussie Pete

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My guess is he'd convert back to Judaism after learning how many pedophiles the Vatican protected .
Oh, I could get in trouble here again. My thoughts on Catholicism have been aired several times, which is why I'm banned from that particular forum.
 
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True, If Gabby wasn't a tiny cute white person. Most people wouldn't care. News media wouldn't talk about it much. She's a money maker. And why shouldn't the media make money from it. I like crime stories . And this one looks like an easy to solve case . I'm more intrigued about the other missing people . That wasn't found in the area she was found.

Complaining about who they pick to sensationalize is a bit like complaining that mainly good looking people get on TV.
 
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